Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA -- Less than a week after the United Nations
Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning North Korea for
test launching several ballistic missiles, the United States launched an unarmed
Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile at 3:14am this morning from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The missile, carrying three dummy warheads,
was fired 4,200 miles across the Pacific toward the missile test range at Kwajalein
Atoll in the Marshall Islands, with a flight time of about 30 minutes. The missile
launch, originally scheduled for July 19 was delayed for 24 hours due to complications
with air traffic control radars in the Southwest region of the U.S.

The test is intended to test the reliability and capability of the missile
system. The U.S. currently deploys 500 Minuteman III missiles, kept on high
alert and each carrying a single nuclear warhead with a yield, depending on
the configuration, of 170 kilotons or 335 kilotons, respectively 10 or 20 times
more powerful than the U.S. atomic bomb that devastated Hiroshima nearly 61
years ago, on August 6, 1945.

This test is the latest in an ongoing series of regularly scheduled ballistic
missile tests conducted by the U.S. military. In the period between January
2000 and the present, the U.S. has conducted at least 48 tests of intercontinental
ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine launched ballistic missiles, including
some 23 Minuteman III ICBMs, launched from Vandenberg. The last test of a Minuteman
III occurred on June 14.

According to Lt. Col. S.L. Davis, 576th Flight Test Squadron commander, the
mission director for this launch: “This mission continues a long string
of successful ICBM flight tests from Vandenberg,” Colonel Davis added:
“It clearly demonstrates the capability of both the Minuteman III weapon
system and those who maintain and operate it…” The Vandenberg news
release announcing the launch also mentioned: “The reliability and accuracy
data will also be used by United States Strategic Command planners.”

Colonel Davis, in a June 14 News Release issued by the 30th Space Wing: “While
ICBM launches from Vandenberg almost seem routine, each one requires a tremendous
amount of effort and absolute attention to detail in order to accurately assess
the current performance and capability of the Nation’s fielded ICBM force
that is always on-alert in Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska.
This specific test will provide key accuracy and reliability data for on-going
and future modifications to the weapon system, which are key to improving the
already impressive effectiveness of the Minuteman III force.” (Emphasis
supplied.)

In a June 22 op-ed in the Washington Post, William Perry, President Bill Clinton’s
Secretary of Defense, and Ashton Carter, his assistant Secretary of Defense,
called upon the Bush administration, “if necessary,” to strike and
destroy North Korea’s Taepodong missile before it could be launched -
even at risk of igniting a war.

According to Michael Spies, Program Associate with the Lawyers’
Committee on Nuclear Policy in New York City: “The ongoing conduct of
these tests represents yet another example of U.S. exceptionalism; the U.S.
feels no embarrassment in criticizing others for the same activities it or its
allies engage in.” Spies added: “The recent UN Security Council
resolution condemning the North Korean tests also exemplifies the one-sided
approach to international security, pursued by all the major powers and imposed
on the world through their disproportionate influence over inter-governmental
bodies. The North Korea resolution reaffirms that the ‘proliferation of
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, as well as their means of delivery,
constitutes a threat to international peace and security.’ However, the
resolution is silent on the threat to others posed by the continued possession,
reliance, improvement and testing of such weapons and their related delivery
systems by the permanent members of the Security Council, and the 35 other states
that have acquired or developed ballistic missile capabilities.”

Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director of the Oakland, California Western
States Legal Foundation concluded: “These tests are yet more evidence
of blatant nuclear hypocrisy by the United States, yet the silence in response
has been deafening. Following the international chorus of condemnation of the
North Korean missile tests, partially led by the U.S., today’s Minuteman
III launch demonstrates the height of hubris. North Korea was labeled by the
Bush administration as part of the ‘axis of evil,’ it appeared on
the U.S. nuclear target list revealed in the Nuclear Posture Review, and it
has been threatened with preemptive strikes by both the Clinton and Bush administrations.
The U.S. maintains a nuclear arsenal of over 10,000 warheads and is upgrading
its delivery systems in pursuit of a ‘prompt global strike’ capability.
Who’s threatening whom? As recognized by the Blix Commission on Weapons
of Mass Destruction, it’s high time for the world’s first nuclear
state to implement its long-past-due obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty to start negotiations on the global elimination of nuclear weapons.”